Abstract
Purpose :
Quality retinal tissue samples are in high demand for researchers studying diseases such as age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy. Posterior poles can be recovered following the procurement of corneas for transplantation. However, current posterior pole procurement techniques lead to lower quality retinal samples with retinal tears, folds and detachments. The RE-One chamber is a unique platform for aseptically excising a cornea from a whole eye, potentially reducing posterior pole disruption. The purpose of this study was to perform a qualitative assessment of the impact of the RE-One chamber on posterior poles.
Methods :
Corneas and posterior poles were procured from five bilateral eye donors. One eye from each donor was enucleated and placed in the RE-One chamber for corneal excision. The contralateral eye had the cornea excised in situ followed by posterior pole procurement into a standard eye jar. The poles were fixed in formalin and refrigerated. After 24 hours, the formalin was replaced with normal saline. Each pole was sent to Kellog Eye Center and grossly imaged, with fundus images and OCT scans taken post iris and lens dissection.
Results :
Fundus photos and OCT scans were obtained on all ten poles. Observations included retinal detachments, folds and tears as well as scleral buckling and collapsing of the iris and lens in the vitreous cavity. While scleral buckling was observed in 2 out of 5 eyes recovered with the RE-One protocol, only 1 eye presented with retinal detachment. The ciliary bodies, irises and lenses remained level in the RE-One chamber without sinking posteriorly. On the contrary, none of the posterior poles recovered with the traditional method presented with scleral buckling but all 5 had iris and lens collapse, and some degree of retinal detachment. OCT also demonstrated that RE-One poles were mostly devoid of retinal folding while 2 of the 5 globes recovered with the traditional method had a significant degree of retinal folding.
Conclusions :
The use of the RE-One chamber maximizes the donor’s gift allowing corneas to be procured surgically simultaneously providing researchers with high quality, intact retinal tissue. This study also suggests that for best results, use of the RE-One procurement technique requires minor modification to correct the scleral buckling observed, seemingly due to improper tightening of the collet.
This abstract was presented at the 2019 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Vancouver, Canada, April 28 - May 2, 2019.